Dr. Anup Wadhawan, IAS, Secretary, Dept. of Commerce held the Open House Meet in Chennai on 22^nd October 2018 under the aegis of FIEO. Shri P. R. Aqeel Ahmed, Vice Chairman, CLE, discussed the following issues pertaining to the leather industry:

1. Implementation of Rebate of State Levies (ROSL) scheme and Embedded / Blocked Input Tax Credit under GST for Leather and Footwear Sector and also charges incurred on certification and testing etc
2. Removal of animal quarantine clearance for import of finished and crust leathers into India
3. Enhancing duty free entitlement for leather garments from 3% to 5% of FOB value of exports in the previous year for import of notified inputs.